How much are you in Debt?

[pullbangdead]

Wow, some of these posts make me kind of miss those days in high school when $50 was a ton of money, and I didn't have to worry about bills and debt.

It also makes me miss living in a low cost of living city, where I could live in a nice apartment for very little money. It's very sobering to now be living in one of the most expensive cost-of-living cities in the US and read what other people are living on. I'm looking at about $1800-$2000 per month in rent ALONE, just rent, on a 2 bedroom apartment in this city. But grad students are supposed to be poor anyway, and as far as grad student standard of living goes, I'm way up there. Get your degree in a useful engineering field, and you won't have to worry about student loans! Grad school is paid for!

 

[brtaman]

Zeitgeist Addendum


First hour...must see...all I have to add.

 

[scopeguy20]

My Debt?

One Million Dollars! O.K. O.K. a little over 1/4th of that! LOL! I try not to think about it! ...at least it's almost all the mortgage!

 

[iskor12]

Wow, some of these posts make me kind of miss those days in high school when $50 was a ton of money, and I didn't have to worry about bills and debt.

It also makes me miss living in a low cost of living city, where I could live in a nice apartment for very little money. It's very sobering to now be living in one of the most expensive cost-of-living cities in the US and read what other people are living on. I'm looking at about $1800-$2000 per month in rent ALONE, just rent, on a 2 bedroom apartment in this city. But grad students are supposed to be poor anyway, and as far as grad student standard of living goes, I'm way up there. Get your degree in a useful engineering field, and you won't have to worry about student loans! Grad school is paid for!

WOW, my rent is $525 a month for a decent sized 2 bedroom apt.

 

[pseudolobster]

I picked "no debt" but now that I think about it I owe my boss about $50.

I make $3k/mo, I'm taxed about $800 of that, rent is $1500/mo but I have a roommate so I only pay $750, my bills are around $150/mo, food is around $300/mo, cigarettes are around $300/mo , I usually buy a couple hundred bucks worth of computer hardware in a month, and now that I think about it I don't really know where the rest goes... Oh, I take the bus, so that's $100/mo, I buy a few coffees each day, so that adds up, maybe $150/mo... It seems I'm never getting ahead, I can never seem to save any money, but I'm never in debt, so I'm happy.

 

[lazorman]

lol im in no debt but am hoping not to get a credit card... id be skrewd

 

[bobhaha]

debt free over here!

 

[digital_blue]

I still owe a buddy some vodka but apart from that, I'm debt and roommate free... :yh:

 

[Jaseth]

The sweet thing about going to study in Denmark is that university is free and you even get about $500 from the state each month to support your rent and food budget.
I am currently in no debt as I have saved up for many years on 3 different accounts - child savings account (can withdraw the money when I begin my studies), normal savings account (have to give notice before I withdraw) and quick account (can withdraw anytime and pay with card). Only my quick account is close to empty after my recent purchase of 2 suits and parts for a laser scanner.
I do not think I will be in any debt until I buy a car or house.

 

[john_lawson]

You guys are all small-time so far..

My debt list:

House = still owe about $140,000US

Car = still owe about $5000US

School = still owe about $43,000US

Daughter = still owe about $230,000US (based on this table not including college costs)

total debt = $418,000US

Holy Crud electro maybe thats why i'm broke 4 kids 11-13-15-18 18 is starting college in two months

 

[BrewCityMusic]

Man, I really feel for those of you with kids, my "other half" brought an 18yo into the family and even though he's (ahem) "on his own", I'd hate to see what he cost for the last 17 years when he wasn't!

Personally, my kids consist of my company (debt free at the moment but looks like I'm gonna need a new panel van soon, so that should eat up the reserves and prob still run me $10K) and 27 acres of my little heaven out here in the Wisconsin woods, my audio stuff (lotsa older Altec, Klipsch, etc) and of course, the bikes ...

 

[Deleted member 8382]

@laserbee: Because I'll spend some hours on it every day, because I'm gonna study computer engineering, because I use video encoding, becasue I'll pay games on it, and because I want it to last long.

engouh?

I'm not getting a Mac because I actually work really good on XP

Yours,
Albert

 

[pseudolobster]

@Hallucynogenyc:

Then you need a good computer, not an expensive one.
People have been studying computer engineering for dozens of years, they've managed to get by on computers a millionth the power of current ones, your studies will most likely not require a powerful computer. As for video encoding, I always queue up batches to be encoded overnight, so it really doesn't matter how fast my computer really is, the videos get encoded one way or the other. For playing games, you may want to invest a couple hundred bucks into a video card, but other than that, everything else is pretty irrelevant. As for having it last a long time, you probably don't want to buy a really powerful one then, cutting edge hardware is always flaky and unstable. If you want it to last a long time get a lousy slow one that's built well using old, but proven hardware.

Macs can run XP, by the way.

 

[erdabyz]

People actually owe me money :eg::eg:

 

[Jaseth]

Or maybe hypnotoad just makes them think they do. All hail the hypnotoad! :bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

I second what pseudolobster is saying, getting slightly outdated but stable hardware and adding a good video and sound card should get you what you want. You can pay $5000 and still get an unstable computer which will have trouble handling some games and crash often.
I built my own computer (no fancy lights or watercooling though) for about $900 and it runs the newest games on top resolution with all graphics features and max quality completely cleanly. I tried Bioshock 2 on my friend's ~$2000 "supercomputer" and there was some lag at full resolution.

 

[Benm]

I dont live with my parents, but have no net debt either.

If you spend $1000 with a creditcard, but that have at least that much in the bank, i don't consider that debt, that's only a matter of balance.

I suppose the same argument goes for mortgage on a house versus its execution value, though that balance might look rather bleak for US members at the moment...